Hand Book on Aquafarming: Seaweed, Sea Urchin and Sea-Cucumber

Abstract

SEAWEED CULTURE
Seaweeds or marine algae are the primitive type of plants and they
grow abundantly in the shallow water.; of sea, estuaries and backwater.;.
They flourish wherever rocky, coral or suitable substrata are available for
their attachment. They belong to fourgroups namely green, brown, red and
blue-green algae based on the pigmentation, morphological and anatomical
character.;. Seaweeds are one of the commercially important marine
living and renewable resources of our country. They contain more than 60
trace elements, minerals, protein, iodine, bromine, vitamins and several
bioactive substances.
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SEA URCHIN CULTURE
Ripe Sea urchin eggs are considered as a delicacy by the Japanese and
one kilogram of the same costs 200 U.S. Dollars. According to the FAD's
annual statistics for 1984 approximately 54,000 tonnes of sea urchin eggs
were harvested. Although it has excellent export potential very little
information is published on the subject. James (1989) summerised all the
information available on the industry. Although there are more than 50
species of sea urchins from the shallow waters of India there is no export of
the eggs from this country. On the mainland of Ind ia and in the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands and also in the Lakshadweep valuable species of sea
urchins exist whose eggs can be exported profitably. There is an ever
increasing demand for this product in theglobal markets. It is gratifying to
note that in recent years the local export companies are evincing keen
interest in this product and some of the Japanese have also come foronspot
study of our resources.
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SEA CUCUMBER CULTURE
According to the PAO's annual statistics for 1984 the world echinodenn
harves t in 1983 amounted to approximately 80,000 tonnes. In 1989
India exported 51.5 tonnes of Beche-de-mer valued at Rs.1.23 crores. There
is a growing demand for the Beche-de-mer from India. Some of the companies
in Singapore are interested to import 10 tonnes every month.
The echinoderms or spiny skinned animals such as the sea cucumbers
and sea urchins have good commercial value. The most popular product is
processed sea cucumber or Beche-de-mer, a Chinese d elicacy.